Burn
by MissAnnaThema
Summary: Jess is sick, Luke is awkward, Lorelai saves the day. Mostly about Luke and Jess, but there's some JavaJunkie and Literati to come. Rated for language I just can't write Jess without swearing . Read and Review and I'll love you forever! **UPDATED**
1. Chapter 1

It was too bright in the apartment. That was his first thought, before he even opened his eyes the light was burning red through his closed lids. He opened them slowly and quickly closed them again as the bright white light of the Connecticut winter morning shot through his brain. Jess groaned and groped for the alarm clock, clumsily turning it off. He felt truly awful. His head ached fiercely, his sinuses were completely blocked up, his throat felt rough and sore, and every other muscle in his body screamed in protest as he sat up.

"Fuck," he muttered, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. "What did I drink last night?" Slowly, it dawned on him that he hadn't had anything to drink the night before, or the night before that, or any night since he moved to Stars Hollow. Hard to find folks around here interested in corrupting a minor.

Jess rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and ran his fingers through his messy black hair. If it wasn't a hangover, then he must be getting sick, but he didn't even want to think about that possibility. He got up and headed for the bathroom, stripping off his thermal top and plaid pants as he went.

Jess stood in the shower letting the hot water soothe his aching muscles and breathing in the steam. He felt dizzy and weak and wanted to crawl back into bed and not come out again. Unfortunately, living with someone who cared about him made his hasty retreat back to bed more difficult to accomplish. He could tell Luke that he felt too sick to go to school, but that would mean one of two things: either Luke would send him to bed, fuss over him all day, and make him go to a doctor or he would assume Jess was faking and send him to school anyway. Since he felt the second option was more likely, Jess decided that dragging himself to school was the best course of action.

After dressing and giving his hair a halfhearted attempt at styling, Jess headed down the stairs. In the diner, Luke was putting steaming cups of coffee in front of two beautiful brunette girls at the counter.

"Jess, you overslept. I could have used you down here this morning," Luke said gruffly.

"You could have woken me up if you needed me so bad, besides, it's Thursday. I don't do Thursday mornings. I gotta get to school." Jess headed for the door.

"Hi Jess," Rory said quietly.

He stopped for a moment, "Hey," he said. "I gotta go. See you later." He stood there for a few seconds, looking at her, before continuing out the door.

"Must you go so soon? We were having such a lovely chat, you were just telling me how nice it was to see me this morning," Lorelai chimed in.

"At least have some toast or something before you go," said Luke.

" 'm not hungry," Jess mumbled, slamming the door behind him. He was sure Lorelai had some choice quips to make about his friendly demeanor and polite conversation, but she could shove it. She didn't know him and he didn't care. All he cared about was getting to first period so he could catch a nap during social studies.

Inside the school it seemed unbearably warm and stuffy, and his head was spinning. He wanted to put his head down on the desk, but that would make it too obvious he was sleeping, so he leaned on one arm and waited for a sleep inducing lecture to begin. He made it through the first half of the day pretty easily, no quizzes or tests, two boring lectures and as an extra bonus, they watched a movie in biology so he got to catch a real nap. At lunch he sneaked off to the library for some uninterrupted napping, but when the bell rang to signal the end of lunch, he got up feeling worse than before. His head was still pounding, he was so dizzy he had to steady himself on the table to get up, his stomach was lurching dangerously, and he felt shaky and sweaty. He swallowed back the nausea, ran a hand through his thick hair and collected his things.

The librarian, possibly the only person in the whole school who liked him, shot him a sympathetic look. "You okay hon?" she asked.

"Fine," Jess said as he headed off to English, the one subject he didn't totally hate. He slid into a seat at the back of the class and tried to keep his head down, hoping the teacher wouldn't call on him. Mrs. Edwards, the teacher, was passing out copies of the book they were reading next, _The Plague_ by Albert Camus. "Fitting," Jess thought as he accepted his copy. He had read it several times already, so he figured he was safe to zone out. He leaned forward with his head in his hands, trying to breathe slowly and keep from puking on the book he'd just been handed.

Suddenly, he was aware of someone standing right in front of his desk. "Jess Mariano, can you hear me?" Mrs. Edwards asked, looking down at him.

"Yeah, sorry, what was the question?" Jess sat up, a little panicked to suddenly have all eyes on him.

"Sorry to interrupt your nap, but I asked you to tell us a little about existentialism, since I'm sure you read last night's assignment."

He hadn't, but he figured he knew enough about the topic to fake it. "Exist—," his voice came out thick and raspy. He cleared his throat and continued, "Existentialism is a 20th century modernist philosophy that basically says that we can't know anything except that we exist. Different philosophers in the movement had different ideas about what that meant though, like Camus thought it meant you were supposed to help people and make their existence better, while Sartre thought that since your existence was all you could know, you should just look out for yourself." He swallowed back another wave of nausea, hoping that was pretty close to what had been in the reading assignment.

She looked surprised. "Very good Jess," she said. "Now, why don't you go to the nurse's office and let Mrs. Oliver have a look at you?"

"I don't….I'm fine," Jess muttered.

"That wasn't a request. Dean, why don't you walk with Jess to the nurse's office and make sure he gets there okay. Come straight back to class afterward, Mr. Forrester."

"No problem, Mrs. Edwards," Dean said as he got up and followed Jess out of the room.

I should have just gone to the office the first time she said it, then I wouldn't have to have this fucking bag boy escorting me, Jess thought darkly. He tried to walk quickly, but Dean caught up. Damn his freakishly long legs.

"Hey, you okay man?" Dean asked.

"Fine," Jess spat the word out between gritted teeth.

"You look like you're gonna puke."

"That's a distinct possibility, so you might want to back off a little." Jess found this whole episode to be deeply humiliating and suddenly wished he was back in New York where he could have just stayed in his own bed all day and no one would even have noticed that he skipped school, especially not Liz.

"Hey man, I was just trying to be nice. You don't have to bite my head off."

Jess didn't respond. They were almost to the nurse's office, and he was ready to be rid of bag boy. Dean reached the door first and knocked. Mrs. Oliver, a middle aged woman in scrubs and a sweater with short graying hair opened the door.

"Dean Forrester, what brings you here?" she asked.

"Mrs. Edwards asked me to walk Jess Mariano here from English class." Dean gestured vaguely in Jess' direction.

"Well that was very nice of you Dean. Say hi to your mom for me! Come on in Jess."

Jess brushed past Dean through the doorway of the nurse's office and stood there, hands in his pockets, looking around. It looked like a doctor's office, and he had never been very fond of doctor's offices.

"Hop up on the table, Mr. Mariano. Let's have a look at you, Mrs. Oliver said, gesturing toward the tall cot in the middle of the room.

He took a seat on the end, and she began checking his ears, eyes, nose and throat with a light. She felt the glands in his neck, and was listening to his chest with her stethoscope when he suddenly realized how bad he really felt. "I think I'm going to be sick," he said in a rush.

To her credit, Mrs. Oliver had great reflexes and handed him a plastic basin from a nearby table before he started vomiting. He hadn't eaten anything all day, but he'd had a soda around lunchtime hoping that it would settle his stomach. After a few minutes, he put the basin back on the table and wiped his mouth on the sleeve of his jacket. He couldn't believe that had just happened. He just wanted to go home and hide for a week.

"Feel better now?" Asked Mrs. Oliver.

"No." Jess slumped forward, arms wrapped around his stomach.

"Okay, well just one more thing and then you can go home." Mrs. Oliver gently put the tip of the digital thermometer in Jess' ear and waited a few seconds for it to register. "Alright," she said, "I'll just go call your uncle and have him pick you up."

"Can't I just walk home? I mean I can see it from the school."

"Nope, sorry, school policy. If you're too sick to be at school, then your parent or guardian has to come pick you up so you don't pass out in the street on your way home and we don't get sued."

"I won't sue you, I promise, we're not a very litigious family."

"Sorry, I gotta call your uncle. I'm sure he won't mind." Mrs. Oliver picked up the school directory on her desk and dialed Luke's number. "Hello, Mr. Danes? This is Mrs. Oliver at Stars Hollow High. We need you to come pick Jess up."

There was a pause.

"What? Nothing, he hasn't done anything."

Another pause.

"Sir, I'm the school nurse. I'm calling because Jess was sent to my office by one of his teachers because he was feeling ill. He is running a fever of 102 degrees and throwing up. Will you please come take him home?"

Another pause, longer this time, Luke was probably frantically apologizing.

"It's alright Mr. Danes, we'll see you soon." Mrs. Oliver hung up the phone. She looked at Jess, "You get in trouble a lot, sugar?"

"Guess so." Jess said.

"You can lie down on the table there, sugar. I'm sure your uncle will be here soon." Mrs. Oliver picked up the basin from the table and went into the adjoining room where he heard water running.

Her suggestion that he lie down was more and more tempting by the second, especially since the temperature in the room seemed to have dropped about twenty degrees suddenly and he couldn't stop shivering, but he remained seated at the end of the table.


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks for all the reviews! Sick Jess is my favorite thing to write! Here's part two, more to come soon!

It only took Luke a couple of minutes to walk over to the school, but he was shocked by how sick his nephew looked when he walked into the nurse's office. Jess' pale skin was even whiter than usual, his cheeks were flushed, the color standing out in stark contrast to his pallor. His eyes had dark circles under them, and there was a sheen of sweat on his face though he was holding his jacket tightly around himself and shivering.

Mrs. Oliver looked up from her desk. "Oh good, Mr. Danes, you're here. I just need you to sign this form saying that you picked Jess up, and then you two can be on your way." She handed him a clipboard and a pen.

As Luke signed the paperwork, he asked her, "Do I need to take him to a doctor?"

"If he's still feeling this poorly tomorrow, if he can't keep any liquids down, or if his fever is over 103 degrees and won't come back down, take him to a doctor. Otherwise, just make sure he drinks plenty of clear liquids like water, tea, or broth and gets plenty of rest. It just looks like a bad case of the flu, I'm sure he'll be fine in a few days."

"Okay, thanks, Mrs. Oliver," Luke said. He handed the paperwork back to her. "Come on, Jess, let's get you home."

Jess stood up slowly and made his way to the door, where Luke was waiting. Luke didn't say anything to him on the way home, thankfully, but the walk seemed ten times longer than it had that morning, and it took every last reserve of strength that Jess had.

Luke didn't say anything because he was quietly freaking out about the idea of taking care of a sick kid. When he agreed to take his nephew in, he hadn't really thought about the fact that the kid might get sick at some point. What did he know about taking care of a sick kid? Especially Jess, who was already difficult to deal with. Luke wasn't even sure that he owned a thermometer, or that he could read one if he managed to find it. He was mentally making a list of things to get from the market when the got back to the diner. Jess went straight up the stairs to their apartment, but Luke stood frozen in the empty dining room, trying to figure out what to do first. Eventually, unable to make a decision, he went upstairs to check on Jess.

Jess, meanwhile, had gone straight up the stairs and into bed. He had kicked off his boots, crawled into bed fully dressed, pulled the blankets over his head, and was shivering violently. He heard Luke come in, walk over to the foot of his bed, and stand there. Luke didn't say anything. Jess pulled the blanket down a little and looked at him. "Yes?"

"Oh, umm, are you okay? Do you need anything?"

"No, I'm just peachy," Jess said sarcastically.

Luke went to the kitchen and came back with a glass of ice water, setting it on Jess' night stand. "I'll be back to check on you later," he said. "Try to get some rest, and drink that, you don't want to get dehydrated." Luke went back down the stairs into the diner, leaving Jess alone, finally.

All day Jess had just wanted to be by himself in his bed to sleep it off, but now that he was, he kind of wished Luke had stayed close by. He pulled the covers more tightly around himself, curled up on his side, and closed his eyes. Even as awful as he felt, sleep didn't come easy. After a few minutes, he got up, put _Stranger Than Fiction_ by Bad Religion in his stereo, turned it up and hit play. He downed the glass of water that Luke left by the bed in a few sips, and curled back up in bed. Despite his headache, the blaring music did the trick, and he fell asleep in a few minutes.

Luke went up the stairs a couple of times over the next hour to check on Jess, but his nephew was sleeping, so he busied himself in the diner. When it got slow, he ran over to Doose's to pick up a thermometer, some chicken soup, and some ginger ale. He rarely got sick and couldn't think of anything else Jess might want. When he got back to the diner, he went upstairs to put his shopping bags away. Jess wasn't in bed, and there were loud sounds of retching coming from the bathroom.

Luke knocked on the bathroom door, "Jess, you okay in there."

There was a long pause as Jess continued to vomit, then silence. "I'm fine," a shaky voice answered.

"Obviously you're not. Do you need any help?"

"Why, Uncle Luke, you wanna come hold my hair back while I puke?"

"Not really. Do you need anything?"

"Yeah, I need you to go away."

Luke sighed and stood staring at the door for a few minutes. There were no more noises from inside the bathroom, but Jess didn't seem to be coming out either. Finally, he went back downstairs.

Jess heaved a sigh of relief, pulled himself up by the toilet bowl, flushed the toilet, and, steadying himself on the sink, got up and crawled back in bed. He was not about to let Luke see him huddled over the toilet puking. Just having him hear it was bad enough.

Downstairs in the diner, Luke did the only thing he could think of. He picked up the phone and dialed.

"Miss Kitty's house of pleasure and pain, how may we help or hurt you?" said the voice on the other end of the line.

"Lorelai?"

"No Lorelai here, just Miss Kitty."

"Lorelai, it's Luke."

"Hey Luke, what's up? You sound upset."

"Um, Jess is sick, and I don't know what to do. I've never taken care of a sick kid before."

"Well, first of all, I think he's old enough that it's just dealing with a sick person, not a sick kid. Second of all, I don't know what to tell you, what's wrong with him?"

"I don't know, the school nurse said something about the flu and a fever, he looks awful, but he went right to bed when we got home, so I figured he'd just sleep it off, but then when I went upstairs to check on him, he was throwing up in the bathroom. I don't know what I'm supposed to do, and he just keeps telling me to leave him alone, but I figure I shouldn't, but I'm at a loss as to how to get him to let me help him."

"I'll be right over," Lorelai said.

"You don't have to—"

She cut him off, "I know, but I'm on my way."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3, and it's nice and long! Thanks for all the reviews! Hope you love torturing Jess as much as I do!**

A few minutes later, Lorelai rushed into the diner carrying a duffel bag with her. "Never fear, Under Dog is here!"

"What?" Luke looked at her, confused.

"Nevermind, what can I do to help?"

"Well, I don't know. I mean, I'm not sure Jess is any more likely to let you help him out than me."

"Okay, well what's the status? How high is his fever?"

"I don't know," Luke shook his head. "The nurse said it was 102 degrees when I picked him up from school. I haven't taken it again since we got home."

"When did you pick him up?"

"About an hour, hour and a half ago, maybe?"

"Okay, well, let's go check on him, and then we'll see if you need to take him to the doctor or anything."

Luke followed Lorelai up the stairs. The Clash was blaring from the stereo and Jess was curled up in bed with his back to the door. Luke got the thermometer out of the Doose's Market bag and handed it to her. He was glad to have someone who at least knew what to do around. He wasn't used to being responsible for another person's well being.

Lorelai walked over and knelt down next to the bed. "Jess?" she said quietly. He had his face buried in the crook of his arm.

"What?" came the annoyed but muffled response. He couldn't believe Luke had already freaked out enough to call in the Gilmore squad. Why couldn't they just leave him alone? It was just the flu, it's not like he was going to die or anything. He had gotten through plenty of illnesses before by himself with just sleep and punk rock.

"How are you feeling?"

"Wonderful," he said. "Just trying to decide what extreme sport to play next."

"Okay, so you feel pretty bad, huh? You wanna roll over, let me check your temperature?"

"No," was the still muffled reply.

"Luke, why don't you close the curtains?" Luke closed them, making the apartment dark and cave like. "You want me to turn on a light or something?" Luke asked.

"No, that would defeat the purpose," Jess said, rolling over slowly.

"That's better," Lorelai said, standing up. "Now, Luke, why don't you move the stereo and a trash can over here to Jess' night stand and move the tv table up to the foot of his bed?"

"What?" Luke looked at her quizzically.

"Just do it," Lorelai said. She sat down on the edge of Jess' bed and laid a hand on his forehead. He flinched, but didn't move away. This all seemed very surreal to him. He couldn't believe that the woman who hated him, who had wanted him out of Stars Hollow for good after the accident, was being so nice to him now. He hated her for it a little, but her hand was cold and was the first thing that had felt good to him all day.

She moved her hand to his cheek for a moment, and then removed it as she opened the thermometer packaging. She pressed the button, waited a few seconds, and then said, "Alright Jess, open up, put this under your tongue and then we'll watch Evil Dead."

He opened his mouth and let her put the thermometer under his tongue, but held up two fingers as he did it.

"Ah ha, Evil Dead 2, clearly you are a more discriminating horror fan than I gave you credit for."

Luke moved the tv into place and plugged it and the DVD player in again. "Anything else you need me to do, boss?" he asked her.

"Yes, as a matter of fact. Go to Doose's and buy some popsicles and Ginger Ale and Gatorade."

"I already got Ginger Ale," he said.

"Good, see, you got it a third right. Is the Ginger Ale cold?"

"No, it's just sitting on the table."

"Okay, then put it in the fridge on your way to get the popsicles and Gatorade."

"What flavor Gatorade?"

Lorelai looked at Jess, squinting. "Lemon Lime?" she guessed. Jess nodded.

"Lemon Lime, and popsicles in an assortment of flavors, but not the gross ones that come with banana and root beer flavors."

"Ok, but shouldn't he be drinking water and broth and stuff? Healthier stuff?"

"Healthy stuff is terrible when you're sick. You start with popsicles and Ginger Ale, work your way up to Gatorade, and then when you can keep all of that down you go for water and soup. Haven't you ever been sick before?"

"Yes, I drank water and broth."

"And you were completely miserable the entire time too, I bet. Now shoo, off to the store with you, health freak."

Luke shook his head, exasperated, rolled his eyes, put the Ginger Ale in the fridge, and left the room.

As Luke was leaving, the thermometer started beeping. Lorelai took it out of Jess' mouth and looked at the display. "Ouch, one-oh-two point five. Ok, first things first, you can't be comfortable in bed fully dressed like that. Where's your dresser?"

He gestured toward a dresser on the far wall, "Top two drawers," he said hoarsely.

"Geez, you don't even get your own dresser, human rights violation much?" She walked over to the dresser, pulled out a well worn Dead Kennedys t-shirt and a pair of plaid flannel pajama pants, and tossed them onto his bed. "I'll be in the kitchen, change clothes, I promise I won't look."

This is awkward, Jess thought, but he was stiff and uncomfortable in his school clothes and his shirt was damp with sweat. Maybe if he did what she said, she would leave him alone. He changed as quickly as the dizziness and aching muscles would allow.

Meanwhile, Lorelai fixed a big glass of Ginger Ale with ice, but left it on the kitchen counter and disappeared down the stairs. She returned moments later, with a handful of paper-wrapped straws from the diner, looking triumphant. "Bendy straws, a total requirement for the flu-ridden or otherwise lazy," she explained. She unwrapped one and put it in his drink. "See," she said, "That way you can drink without even having to lift your head up! It's a miracle of modern technology." She put the drink on his bed side table and pulled the dvd out of her duffle bag. She popped it in the player and tossed Jess the remote.

Jess hit play and sunk contentedly back into his pillows. He felt too awful to fight Luke or Lorelai on any of this and she had somehow managed to do all the things he had always imagined a mom would do when you're sick without annoying him too much.

Lorelai, in the meantime, went into the bathroom and returned with a wet washcloth and a bottle of Tylenol. She put the cold washcloth on his forehead, which felt better than he would ever admit, even under torture, and shook two Tylenol out of the bottle, handing them and the Ginger Ale to him.

"Okay, take those, and then sip on the Ginger Ale, don't drink it too fast or you'll make yourself sick. Sleep when you feel like it. If you need anything," she pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and put it on the nightstand, "Just call down to the diner, Luke and I will be down there."

Just then, Luke walked in with his purchases from Doose's. "Good, you're here!" she exclaimed. "You want a popsicle now or later, Jess?"

He swallowed the Tylenol. "Now?" he croaked.

"What flavor?" she asked, opening the box.

"Whatever," he said.

"Cherry it is then." Lorelai handed Jess the popsicle and put the box in the fridge. "Okay, you have everything you need, so just call the diner if you need anything and get some rest, okay?"

Jess nodded. Lorelai ushered Luke back down the stairs, leaving Jess the solitude he'd been craving.

"How did you do that?" Luke looked at her, shocked. "He wouldn't say two words to me, but you somehow knew exactly what to do."

"Well, I've taken care of a sick kid before," she said. "All you have to do is make them comfortable. That means comfort food, junky movies, comfy pajamas, and whatever you can do to get their fever down."

"You make it sound so easy," he said. "I don't think I'll ever figure parenting out." Luke slumped onto one of the stools at the counter.

"Hey, it's not easy. The first time Rory got sick, I completely freaked out. But, I've been doing this for seventeen years now. I know what I like when I'm sick and what Rory wants when she's sick, and I just guessed."

"Rory likes Bruce Campbell movies when she's sick?" Luke asked.

"No, that's me, Rory's more of an Exorcist fan."

"Gross." Luke laughed. "Well, thanks for the help. I guess I'll see you later."

"It's no problem, I'm gonna stick around for awhile though. Rory's supposed to meet me here after she gets done with the paper. Do you mind if I use my laptop?" She knew he hated it.

"No, no, go ahead. I'll get you some coffee."

Lorelai settled in at the counter with her laptop, and Luke filled up one of his huge mugs, setting it in front of her.

Jess, usually not one to take orders, finished the cold popsicle and obediently sipped the Ginger Ale that Lorelai had left him. The cold liquid soothed the firey ache in his throat, and he started to get sleepy again in a few minutes. Just having other people in the room had sapped all of his strength. He tried to pay attention to the movie, but they had barely found the necronomicon when he dozed off. His dreams started off pleasant enough, he and Rory were sitting on the fire escape at his old apartment in New York. They were eating Jello and then she started throwing it at him. Then suddenly, she was gone and the fire escape was falling, falling down the side of the building. It landed in a whirlpool and was sucked down into the center of the swirling water. Suddenly, he was at a desk in a big gray steel and concrete room. There were hundreds of people dressed just like him in all gray at desks just like his. He got up and ran, there were alarms blaring, armed guards chasing after him, yelling at him about what a worthless piece of scum he was, telling him his revolution would never succeed. He ran for hours, his lungs burning, sweat pouring off him. He escaped into a sewer. It was dark and cold and wet and there were rats crawling everywhere. He kept running, but he got disoriented in the dark. It was so cold, it was a maze, and he couldn't find his way out. The rats started talking to him, telling him how to escape. One of them had these creepy blue eyes that reminded him of something. He could hear the song, "Infected" by Bad Religion playing in the background, he turned the corner and he was in the middle of a party in his apartment in New York. It was one of Liz's parties, lots of drunk and stoned losers his mom's age making out, dancing, drinking, listening to crap like Rush and Journey. He was short suddenly, he couldn't find his way through the crowd of people, he was looking for Liz, he needed her. Finally he spotted her, but when she looked back at him, it wasn't Liz at all, it was—he woke up suddenly to someone—it sounded like Rory—saying his name loudly, "Jess, JESS!" and gently shaking his shoulder.

"What—who—ugh," he sat up quickly, looking around and then laid back down immediately. "Fuck!" he said, rubbing his hands over his face.

Lorelai looked down at him with concern, "Are you okay? You were thrashing around and mumbling in your sleep."

"Yeah, I—Shit!" he broke off suddenly, looking around frantically for something to puke in, Lorelai, thinking quickly, grabbed the trash can and held it under his head as he threw up. She rubbed his back gently as he vomited and said whatever generic comforting things you say to someone who is in that position. Jess was really glad he had been wrong about it being Rory. Losing his cool in front of Luke and even Lorelai was one thing, but he didn't think he would ever recover if Rory had seen this. Finally, after several more minutes of dry heaves, he fell back against the pillows, exhausted. He opened his eyes with a groan to find Lorelai sitting on the edge of the bed next to him.

She laid the back of her hand on his forehead. "Jeez, you're burning up," she said, picking up the thermometer from the night stand. She slid it under his tongue and smoothed back his hair gently. "You were asleep for almost six hours, bad dreams?" she asked.

He nodded and closed his eyes. He had never felt this bad in his whole life. He was freezing, his clothes and sheets soaked with sweat. Someone pulled him into a sitting position and pulled his t-shirt off. "Hey," he mumbled, thermometer still in his mouth, "I was wearing that." He was leaning against someone's shoulder, Lorelai, maybe, or Luke.

"I'm going to go run the bathwater," he heard Lorelai say. "We have to get his fever down."

"Alright, I'll keep an eye on him." So it was Luke he was leaning on. He felt his uncle's rough hand on his forehead. He wanted so much to sit up, put his shirt back on, and demand that they leave him alone, but he literally had no energy. He heard the bath water running and the thermometer started beeping. Luke pulled it out of his mouth and read the display. "One hundred four point one, should we take him to the emergency room?"

"Well, let's see if we can't get it to come down a little on our own. If we can't, we'll take him to the emergency room. You can go ahead and bring him in here."

"I'm not going to the hospital, no way," Jess rasped.

"We'll see," Luke said, hoisting his nephew up and half-walking, half-carrying him into the bathroom.

"Okay, in to the tub with him, right now," Lorelai said.

Luke started to pick Jess up to put him in the bathtub.

"Woah there killer," Lorelai stopped him. "You should probably take his pants off first."

"I'm not going to take his pants off, I'm his uncle, it would be creepy."

"Well, what did you think we were going to do, just put him in the bathtub fully dressed?"

"I will take my pants off myself, thanks. And I will trust you both not to look, okay." Jess leaned on the sink with one hand to steady himself and took off his pants and boxers and then climbed carefully into the bathtub. He tried to arrange himself so that there was no chance of either of the conspiring adults catching a glimpse of his junk. "Jesus Christ! You didn't tell me this was going to be ice water!" Jess wrapped his arms around himself tightly, shivering.

"The water's room temperature, Jess, your fever is just so high that it feels cold to you."

Lorelai knelt by the side of the tub. She soaked a washcloth in the bathwater and then ran it across his back, chest, neck, and arms. His teeth chattered hard against each other as he was wracked with chills, but after awhile, he grew acclimated to the water and his shivering became less intense. Jess leaned his head against the side of the bathtub and closed his eyes. Every time he thought that this day couldn't get more embarrassing, it managed to out-do itself.

Finally, after at least half an hour in the water, awkwardly naked in front of his uncle and the mother of the girl he was secretly in love with, Lorelai decided he could go ahead and get out. He had stopped shivering, and his eyes looked steadier and less bright with fever.

Luke lifted Jess to his feet and wrapped a thick, warm towel around him. He helped him to the bed and tried to help him put on some clean clothes, but the boy waved him away, determined to do it himself. They had changed the sheets, he noticed as he crawled back under the covers, almost asleep already. He felt Lorelai's soft, cool hand on his forehead again as she slipped the thermometer under his tongue yet again. As he dozed off, he wondered if that was what Rory's hand felt like as well.

"Well," said Luke. "How is he?"

"We got it down to 103 degrees even, not too bad" Lorelai said. She gently woke Jess up again, "I know you want to sleep, and I promise you can soon, but you've got to get some liquids down so you don't get too dehydrated. Ginger Ale or Gatorade?"

"Gatorade, I guess," Jess mumbled hoarsely. Luke fixed a glass and brought it over to the bed. Lorelai held it up to Jess' lips and he drank about half of it before falling back to sleep.

"So what should I do?" Luke asked her.

"Well, call your doctor first thing in the morning and see if he can get Jess in tomorrow, and then take him and see what the doctor says. Hopefully he'll be feeling at least a little better after a good night's sleep." She stood up, picking up her cell phone from the bedside table. "I'd better get home to Rory," she said. "Call me if you need anything, but hopefully the excitement is over for tonight."

"Thank you so much, for everything. Really, I would have been totally lost without you."

"It's no problem," she said, curtsying, "Just call me your princess in shining armor." She giggled as she left the apartment.

Luke pulled a chair up next to Jess' bed and slumped down in it. He reached out tentatively and laid his hand on his nephew's forehead. Jess moaned softly in his sleep as Luke smoothed his damp hair back from his forehead. After sitting there for quite awhile, Luke was satisfied that Jess seemed to be sleeping soundly, and he got ready for bed, checked on Jess one more time, and turned in for the night.


	4. Chapter 4

Lorelai breezed in the kitchen door around 10pm, opened the pantry and pulled out a box of Mallomars.

"Hello beautiful daughter of mine! Studying again? Don't get too smart, you know boys like 'em dumb!" Lorelai sat down at the table where Rory had her french books spread out and was copying vocabulary words onto notecards.

"Hey mom! How's everything at Luke's? Is Jess okay?"

"Oh yeah, he'll be fine, just a really bad case of the flu. I have to say, he's much more agreeable when he's sick, though."

"Huh, that's weird, since you're much less agreeable when you're sick." Rory stuck out her tongue.

"You wound me! I am a model patient and a delight and a treasure at all times, you know that."

"Oh yeah," Rory said, "I have news."

"Good news?"

"I think you'll be pleased.

"So spill!"

"Well, Grandma called a couple of hours ago and left a message saying that Friday night dinner is cancelled tomorrow because they have to go to some event that they forgot about."

"Oh my god, it's like Christmas! So, I guess you'll be spending your free Friday night with Dean?"

"I would, but he's leaving tomorrow afternoon to visit his grandparents in 's their 40th anniversary."

"An honest to goodness free Friday night for us to hang out together?!" Lorelai clapped her hands in excitement. "Let's do NOTHING!"

"Sounds perfect! I can't wait!" Rory gave her mom a hug.

Lorelai hugged her back, "Now come on, let's watch Rosemary's Baby before we go to bed."

The next morning Jess woke himself up coughing. He was freezing, though he could hear the radiator hissing, so he knew it was probably pretty warm in the apartment. The alarm clock next to his bed read 7:30am, so he figured Luke was downstairs dealing with the breakfast rush. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and shuffled slowly into the bathroom. Jess turned the shower on as hot as it would go and sat under the hot stream trying to get warm. The steam loosened up the congestion in his head and chest and he started coughing heavily. He leaned his head back against the tile and groaned. He could not remember ever feeling worse than he did with this flu. When he finally felt warmer he washed his hair and got out of the shower.

He caught his reflection in the mirror and was shocked by how sick he looked. His eyes were red and had dark almost bruised looking circles underneath them, he was pale as a ghost except for the bright pink flush across his cheeks, and his lips were pale and chapped. "Oh well," he thought, "at least Luke probably won't make me go to school today, so no one will see me anyway."

Jess dressed in a long sleeve Social Distortion tee, a pair of sweatpants, two pairs of socks, and his warmest hoodie and got back under the covers. He had planned to read, but the words seemed to be swimming on the page, so he just closed his eyes and tried to go back to sleep. His cough had other plans, so he turned on the tv and watched some mindless cartoons as he laid there coughing, sniffling, and shivering.

Luke came up the stairs after a while and found Jess in bed under the covers up to his chin and his hoodie up over his head watching cartoons. "How are you feeling?" Luke asked.

"I'm fine." Jess rasped.

"Oh, well if you're fine, I guess you can go to school."

Jess scowled at him from under his hood. Luke felt a little bad about his joke, "I'm kidding. But really, how are you feeling?"

Jess sighed and said "Sick."

"Alright, well, you've got a doctor's appointment at 9:30, so we'll get you all fixed up."

"I don't need a-" Jess broke off into a wet, barking cough.

"Yeah, you do need a doctor, Jess. Not negotiable be ready to go in 30 minutes."

Jess didn't respond, just pulled the covers tighter around himself and went back to paying attention to the television.

"Do you want anything to drink Jess? Water, tea, gatorade?"

"Tea would be cool, I guess,"

Luke was kind of shocked that the kid had asked for tea, but he put the kettle on and made two cups of Earl Grey and brought one over to Jess.

"Thanks." Luke noticed Jess's hands were shaking as he took the mug. He thought he should probably take Jess's temperature, but they were going to be at the doctor in less than an hour, so it didn't seem worth it, especially since Jess would probably fight him on it. Luke went back downstairs to wrap up the breakfast rush before they had to leave.

Lorelai was sitting at the counter when Luke got downstairs. He grabbed her a mug and filled it with coffee. "Thanks!" she said brightly, "How's Jess today?"

"Still sick. He's coughing a lot, but no more puking, so I guess that's good. Thanks for all your help last night."

"No problem, glad I could help."

"So what are you and Rory up to this weekend? Big Plans?"

"Well, our big plan this weekend is that we have no plans. Dean is out of town, Rory's ahead on homework, Lane is at a bible retreat, and the grandparents cancelled Friday night dinner, so Rory and I actually get to bum around together this weekend for the first time in forever."

"Sounds fun, hope you guys have a good time."

"We will, and thanks for the coffee. Tell Jess I hope he feels better. Just give me a call if you guys need anything!" She waved goodbye as she headed off to work.

A few minutes later as Luke was clearing off some tables, Jess came down the stairs and dropped down in a chair at an empty table. He had put on his jeans and a pair of Vans slip-ons as well as his coat. "Oh good, you're ready," Luke said, "Just let me grab my coat and we'll go." Luke took the pile of dishes he was holding to the kitchen, let Caesar know he would be gone for a bit, and grabbed his coat from the rack in the store room.

Jess shivered in the car, he was focusing all of his efforts on keeping his teeth from chattering, but he was still failing. "Are you cold?" Luke asked, "I can turn the heat up a little more if you want."

"It's fine, I don't think it would help." Jess wrapped his arms around himself. Luke turned up the heat anyway. "We're almost there." Luke said.

The doctor's office was a small building on the outskirts of Stars Hollow and the waiting room was cozy and warm, and looked like it had been decorated by someone's grandma. There were doilies on the chairs and tables and lots of dried flowers and Norman Rockwell pictures on the wall. Jess slouched down in one of the plush chairs and closed his eyes. Luke went up to the counter to check them in with the receptionist. "It should just be a minute," he said as he sat down next to Jess.

A couple of minutes later, an extremely perky nurse in her early forties opened the door and said "Jess Mariano?"

Jess stood up and shuffled towards the exam room, with Luke following closely behind. "Good morning!" she said brightly, "I'm Gina, you just hop right up on that table and we'll get started!"

Jess climbed up on the vinyl exam table, his arms crossed, scowling at the nurse. "Just gonna get your temp really quick, honey!" She slid the thermometer under his tongue. "You need to take off that jacket and sweatshirt, sweetie, so we can get your vitals."

Jess slowly removed his jacket and hoodie. He really hoped he did not have to deal with this woman for much longer.

She strapped the blood pressure cuff around his arm and pumped it as she took his pulse. "Both on the high side," she said, "Guess somebody doesn't like doctors!" She took the thermometer out of his mouth. "Oh my, 102.9 degrees! You poor thing!" She patted Jess on the knee. "The Doctor will be right in, honey!"

Jess pulled his hoodie back around himself and leaned back against the wall. He and Luke waited in silence except for the occasional coughing fit. Finally, the doctor knocked and came into the exam room. "Hey Luke, good to see you. And you must be Jess. I'm Doctor Schmidt. Let's see if we can't get you feeling better." The doctor extended his hand and Jess reached out and shook it. Doctor Schmidt was a tall, thin man with a soft voice. He appeared to be in his late fifties.

Doctor Schmidt looked down at his chart. "So when did you start feeling sick?"

"Yesterday, when I woke up."

"And you obviously have a high fever, and Luke said you were vomiting, any other symptoms?"

"Cough, sore throat, headache," Jess answered hoarsely.

"What about body aches? Do your muscles and joints hurt?"

Jess nodded.

"Chills and sweats?"

Jess nodded again.

"Definitely sounds like the flu, but we're gonna check and make sure there's nothing else going on." The doctor pulled his stethoscope from around his neck and settled the earpieces in his ears. "Can you take off your sweatshirt and your t-shirt, please?"

Jess pulled both off at once, shivering as the cool air hit his feverish skin. The doctor listened to his lungs front and back and asked Jess to cough. "Your lungs are really congested and a little bit wheezy, but I don't hear any crackling. Looks like you could have some bronchitis cooking, though. Gonna have to keep an eye on that." He examined Jess's throat, ears, and sinuses, felt the glands in his neck, and felt his abdomen.

"Looks like it's just a bad case of the flu, but you're headed for bronchitis and it looks like you have an ear infection brewing as well. I'm going to write you a prescription for Tamiflu, which will help lessen the severity and duration of the symptoms. I'm also going to give you a prescription for some cough syrup with painkillers, but only take it if you are having trouble sleeping because of the cough. Otherwise, just let yourself cough so you can get rid of all that junk in your lungs. Try to lay off the Tylenol too, unless the fever is making you too uncomfortable to rest. Fever is one of your body's best defenses and it can help you get better faster if you let it run its' course. I'm also writing a script for some antibiotics to nip that infection in the bud." Doctor Schmidt turned to Luke. "Keep him warm and in bed and make sure he drink plenty of fluids. He should be feeling considerably better by Monday, though it could take a week or more before he's completely well. He needs to be fever free for twenty-four hours before he goes back to school, and if he's still running a high fever on Monday, bring him back and we'll take another look."

"Thanks Doc," said Luke, shaking Doctor Schmidt's hand.

"No sweat, you boys take care now," the doctor handed Luke the prescriptions and they were on their way.


End file.
